UNO tournament in Biloxi promotes mental health awareness in children

BILOXI, Miss. (WLOX) - If you were in Edgewater Mall on Saturday, you may have noticed an ordinary game of UNO going on. To the children playing, it was a breath of fresh air.

Building Behaviors Counseling Services is an LLC that specializes in adult and children’s therapy. The organization uses a more hands-on approach with a child’s session, which is where UNO comes into play.

“When we’re working with them, we use a lot of interventions and manipulatives like UNO and one of the things it does is it gives us a conversation piece where we can teach social skills, communication skills and help with anxiety and teach problem-solving,” said Tanisha Philips.

Tanisha Phillips and Stephanie Burton are part of Building Behaviors Counseling Services. This is the second year they’ve held an UNO tournament for children after finding it beneficial to children especially those with autism.

“It’s about accepting those kids who do have issues and allowing them to get the proper care that they need by seeing a therapist or going to a behavioral center to get the care and therapy they need,” said Burton.

Both women say while May is dedicated to Mental Health, it takes a community to keep the conversation of mental health going not only for the adults but also for the children.

“It’s extremely important and what we’re trying to do is break the stigma of mental health and understand kids need to have that therapy and understand how to pinpoint and recognize when there’s an issue and get them the help they need,” said Burton.

“Let’s be cognizant of mental health awareness. We never know what people are going through whether they are adults or children and I think we should keep that at the forefront of our minds that people are always affected by mental health and let’s just try to pour into them instead of taking away because we just never know,” said Philips.

The winner of this year’s UNO tournament is Isabella who beat the CEO of the company in the final round.

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